Page 14 of All Your Lies (All or Nothing #2)

eleven

Gage

S omething about her feisty temper brings a smile to my face. This is a side to her I briefly got to enjoy before I left. I love her sweet and caring side, but this one brings forth entirely different feelings. Deviant ones I can’t wait to explore with her.

I watch her walk through her little place on my computer screens, throwing up middle fingers in every direction.

If I was smart, I wouldn’t have given myself away, but fuck, I couldn’t help myself.

I wanted to see her face when she put two and two together about me watching her. She didn’t disappoint.

I’m not trying to be a stalker per se, well, fuck, a little, but it’s also for her protection.

She strolls into the bathroom, and I decide to get back to work. I may be a fucking creep, but I won’t invade her privacy in that way.

I get back into my paperwork, which seems to be never-ending. My fingers are in too many cookie jars and I can’t seem to give myself a break. It’s like swimming through different currents of water all moving around at once. Pulling me in every direction, I’m just trying to make sure I don’t drown.

It’s been this way since I got out. I gave my father a big fuck you and started my own businesses while using connections I made while in prison.

They were well aware of my identity and the unique skills I could contribute, and I was equally aware of how I could leverage their abilities.

Before I even left, countless partnerships were established.

Bit by bit, I’ve been unraveling the empire my father holds so dear.

Soon enough, everything that once existed will disappear, and my father’s name will lose its power, reduced to only a faint murmur.

It’s strange how violence can either bring you together or force you apart.

My father was the latter. He made me hate him to an unimaginable level.

If there’s something further than hatred, that’s what I hold for him.

It took a long time to sift through all the tangled emotions and ingrained beliefs he made me carry.

So many scars he inflicted, and for what?

I still rose from the ashes where he left me, and I’m better than ever.

My best friend, Vic, was the former. He had my back in prison.

If not for him, I wouldn’t have survived the second time I was attacked.

Blood doesn’t mean shit. Sometimes it’s just an excuse.

Sometimes you need to bleed out that blood and become anew.

A knock makes me look up to see Jace. He’s another one where I could say violence brought us together , I think with a grin.

The week following my prison release , I was lost in the television’s glow while in Vic’s living room when I heard a noise and checked out the blinds.

Someone was rooting around the front porch at one in the morning.

After their third failed attempt at getting through a window, I unlocked the back door and waited for them to come around.

I wanted the guy to get in just as badly as he apparently wanted to get in.

I thought it was one of my father’s men coming for me.

As he walked in through the back and made his way into the kitchen, I jumped him from behind and wrestled him to the ground.

His fight was laughable, to say the least, and once he said Vic’s name, I let him go and turned on the light.

A guy younger than me was looking back at me with a black eye and a busted lip.

I was rough but didn’t throw my hands. Turns out, he was Axl, Vic’s friend’s little cousin.

Vic allowed Jace to flop at his house when he got into fights with his old man.

Once he told me, my heart squeezed. I found a kinship with him at that moment.

From that day forward, he’s been like a little brother I never asked for but got anyway.

It felt good to pay it forward and be the guiding light he needed, mirroring Vic’s support when I first became his cellmate. I made him a deal and gave him a safe place to stay a week after we met. Now, he handles every errand for the club, and any other inconveniences I don’t have time for.

“What’s up?”

“Just checking in. I didn’t get the chance to talk the other night.”

“No worries. I got a piece of what I needed. What happened, though? Your charms didn’t work on the friend?”

“My charms work on everybody,” he says with a smile so big both of his dimples show. “Some guy came up to her at the bar, whispered something in her ear, and she went white as a ghost. Then she ran to you guys.”

“An ex or something?”

“No clue. It was fucking weird, though.”

“Check the database and see who he is.”

I won’t tolerate someone harassing her friend, especially if it could endanger Alexa’s safety as well. They seem to be together more often than not.

“On it,” Jace says as he walks out of my office while typing something into his phone.

My phone rings, and I get a call from the front. I have a visitor. A very unwelcome visitor. I count to ten and hope that, for his sake, I have enough patience to deal with him.

I raise my eyes just as my carbon copy waltzes in. His hair looks picture-perfect, and he’s dressed like he just had brunch at a country club before a golf tournament.

Where I went dark with tattoos and muscle on muscle, he went light with a clean-cut fuckboy appearance and a runner’s body. A body I’m sure would be easy to bend in half and break.

Our contrasting appearances are impossible to ignore, more pronounced than ever before, which makes a calmness wash over me.

I got locked up because of this motherfucker. Years wasted, never to be replaced.

If we weren’t twins, identical ones at that, I would have never had to pay a price with years of my life. His penance is coming, and I look forward to it.

I spent many years thinking of creative and imaginative ways I would make him pay. Some more painful than others. The weirdest revelation is my choice to wait out his punishment.

When I got locked up, an overwhelming anger surged through me, fueling my every thought and action.

The darkness was so overwhelming, all I could see was a pitch-black void.

It consumed my every thought. I was fortunate to have Vic teach me how to turn my anger into a source of strength to push forward.

Instead of self-destruction, I used my time to better myself. I gained weight and muscle, read thousands of books, finished my schooling, and started college business courses.

I went through a metamorphosis in my time behind bars. I was no longer the good twin who ripped the shirt off his back, no matter how badly I needed it for myself.

I no longer sacrificed my own needs to appease others.

I pledged my loyalty solely to myself and to those who would reciprocate my every action.

I keep my circle small. Until proven otherwise, I perceive everyone as a potential adversary and that includes so-called blood.

That’s what makes this motherfucker in front of me an unwelcome presence. He’s the enemy. I understand my father manipulated events and used me as a scapegoat, but Marco’s choices caused all subsequent events.

“To what do I owe this unfortunate visit, Marco?” I murmur from behind my desk.

I don’t get up and do the brotherly hug shit or extend an arm out for him to sit. And I sure as fuck don’t gaze back up at his stupid ass when there are more pressing matters to attend to.

“Come on, don’t be like that, little bro. I’ve missed you,” he says, scanning his surroundings from what I can see in my periphery. “You got a nice place here. Definitely an interesting choice in a business venture, if I do say so myself.”

“Is there a reason you’re here?” I say, peering up at him. He’s now sitting on my black leather couch off to the right. His feet are propped up on my glass table like he has every right to sit there, with no care in the world. “Don’t you have an empire to run?”

“You’re supposed to help me run the family business as my right hand, remember?”

“I’m no one’s fucking lapdog, and I don’t work for anyone besides myself.”

“You can be my partner.” Hope fills his eyes. What a fool.

“You think I want to be anywhere near your stupid ass? Even seeing you right now makes me want to stab you in the fucking neck.”

“No reason to get all prison inmate on me. I’m here to offer you what you’ve always wanted.”

The comment makes my jaw tick, my fists clench, and a burning rage threatens to consume me, yet I refuse to give in to violence. “And what do you think I’ve always wanted?”

“Easy. Alexa... and the empire you’re trying so hard to stay away from and dismantle.”

The mention of her name piques my interest. However, I maintain a bored demeanor.

“What makes you think I want either of those?”

He laughs. “You must think I’m stupid, Gage. You’ve been in love with her since we were kids.” Despite my racing heart, I maintain a stoic expression as he persists, “All those stolen glances resembling a lovesick puppy.”

I steeple my hands against my chin, my eyes narrowing with an intense glare. “Do you intend to waste my entire day with your pointless chatter, or are you going to make your point?”

“My point is, I’ll give you what you’ve always wanted. The family business and the girl.”

“And how do you suppose you’ll do that? From what I hear, Alexa is no longer yours.”

“I did that for you. Everything over the past few years has been for you,” he says quickly. “It’s the least I can do after you went to prison for me.”

He finally said it. What I’ve been waiting years to hear. This motherfucker never even apologized when I got taken in. He hid in his room like a little bitch.

16 YEARS OLD

“Here they come,” Mom says, rushing in with a camera.

My gaze rises as Rosie and Alexa descend the stairs.

Mom gives me a kiss on the way to the girls. “Thank you for taking them shopping today, honey.”

“Of course,” I say, but barely register anything else besides Alexa.

She looks beautiful. A light smoky eye and red lips. She opted for a black strapless dress with jewels covering the tulle bottom, making the light catch the dress and sparkle just like her eyes.

I feel a dark presence at my side just as Marco steps up next to me.

He’s been in a shitty mood for months. We haven’t been able to stand each other, and from the smell, he’s been drinking again.

If our father finds out, there will be hell to pay.

He’s already fixed multiple fuckups of his that were alcohol-induced.

Alexa looks over and sees him. “What do you think, Marco?” She does a twirl.

“About what?” he says before walking away.

What a fucking piece of shit. I almost go to follow him until I see Alexa’s face fall.

“When am I going to get a picture with you guys?” I say, hoping to shift the expression on Alexa’s face.

I walk between my sister and Alexa. “You look beautiful, Lex,” I whisper in Alexa’s ear before looking forward and smiling into the lens.

We’ve never mentioned the moment we shared in the game room that night a year ago.

It will always be a core memory for me, something I’ve replayed many times.

The moment she found out about her arranged marriage to Marco, our relationship underwent a shift. It was like a dagger to my heart. I had no hope.

“Are you girls ready to go? The limo’s here,” Mom says with a wide smile.

Mom’s always gone against my father to make sure Rosie got all the experiences she never had, including the homecoming dance the girls are going to tonight. One Marco and I could have gone to if my father hadn’t forbidden it.

The girls walk by and I give them one last hug before they’re off.

As we sit down to dinner later that night, my father gets a call.

One that would change the course of my life forever.

Someone died in a car crash, a hit and run, to be more exact.

Witnesses saw the driver, and it was someone who looked just like me, but wasn’t me.

Within the next hour, I turn myself in for a crime I never committed.

My brother is due to reign over the kingdom my father has kept alive for decades.

Marco had already fucked up too much, and this couldn’t be swept under the rug with bribes and money. Something the families have used to their advantage for decades.

Someone had to pay for the crime.

I was the expendable second-born son.

Never did I hate my brother or father more than the moment the bars clicked closed in my cell.

I was never the same after that day.

The devil in me was summoned forth to lead in my vendetta.

A new monster was born, which rivaled the one I always kept locked away.

Present

“How did you suppose treating her like shit would bring her my way?”

“Isn’t she already in your territory?” he asks knowingly before he grins.

The fucker’s been watching us. Although I’m certain he’s only been to my club today. I have cameras all over the place. His sniffing around and watching her unsettles me. I’ll have to check her place the next time I sneak in and make sure my cameras are the only ones in residence.

“All you’re showing is that you’re a stalker bitch.”

“A stalker bitch who’s trying to make things right.” He grins.

I don’t like his grin; it puts me on edge.

“And why don’t you want the empire you’ve been groomed to take over?”

“You know I’ve never wanted it. I just went with it to get the old man off my case. I’m not meant to lead.”

“And what makes you think I am?” I ask with a raised brow.

“Come on, baby bro, you’re smart, lethal, determined, and you’ve always wanted it. The empire and the girl. What do you say?”

“I’ll think about it,” I say to get him out of my office and, more importantly, out of my fucking face.